Businesses Must Act To Stay Resilient In The Face Of Tariffs
With tariffs looming large, business stability requires clear, multilateral trade policy frameworks with predictable enforcement mechanisms – i.e., ideally through negotiated trade pacts rather than unilateral tariffs.
In the meantime, businesses can build resilience by diversifying suppliers, holding strategic inventory buffers, and modeling scenarios based on multiple tariff regimes.
Inevitably, it will reallocate more resources from “growth” to “risk management” and rebuilding what already exists/existed elsewhere (but is too risky to continue to heavily or solely rely on).
Beyond such risks, tariffs have catalyzed a shift away from globalization toward more fragmented supply chains and regional blocs. This has accelerated de-risking strategies and reshoring efforts.
Globally, they introduced a lack of clarity that’s curbed investment, muddled trade and political relationships, and forced both allies and rivals to reconsider their exposure to US-centric economic systems.